Acanthus

THREAD SUMMARY Experience Acanthus | [Word Count: 6068/10 = 606.8] * [True Tier: 7] * [Group Factor: 0.5] = 2124 * 2 = 4248 EXP Jomei | [Word Count: 6068/10 = 606.8] * [True Tier: 12] * [Group Factor: 0.5] = 3641 * 2 = 7282 EXP Wulfrin | [Word Count: 6068/10 = 606.8] * [True Tier: 6] * [Group Factor: 0.5] = 1820 * 2 = 3640 EXP Kiyabu | [Word Count: 6068/10 = 606.8] * [True Tier: 2] * [Group Factor: 0.5] = 607 * 2 = 1214 EXP Col Acanthus | 318 col (Laurel Wreath) Jomei | 546 col (Laurel Wreath) Wulfrin | 273 col (Laurel Wreath) Kiyab

THREAD SUMMARY Winner is Acanthus (close fight though! gg) (Word Count does not include Kindling's Introduction) Experience Acanthus | [Word Count: 2917/10 = 291.7] * [True Tier: 7] * [Group Factor: 0.7] = 1429 * 2 = 2858 EXP Vigilon | [Word Count: 2917/10 = 291.7] * [True Tier: 7] * [Group Factor: 0.7] = 1429 * 2 = 2858 EXP Col Acanthus | 428 col (Laurel Wreath) Vigilon | 428 col (Laurel Wreath)

Chilly Recovery. +1 EN. +18 EN Swift Action. None Main Action: None (Frozen) You best hope your luck keeps up Acanthus | HP: 278/440 | EN: 25/43 | DMG: 10 | MIT:56 | ACC:3 | AA | FL.AURA: 4 | THORNS:18 | BH:14 | HB: 18 | LD:3 | BURN: 14 (1/2) | FROZEN | FTK (2/7) Morningstar | HP: 379/450 | EN: 5/43 | DMG: 9 | ACC: 4 | AA | EVA: 4 | REC: 2 | LD: 4 | HLY: 4 | FRZ | SUSHI

stop that!!! Recovery. +1 EN. +18 HP. Swift Action. Antidote Crystal (-2 EN) | All negative status effects cleared (Freeze, Burn, Shatter) Main Action: ST-I -> Morningstar (-2 EN) 243022 | BD 4 + 4 - 4 | Miss. Acanthus | HP: 324/440 | EN: 24/43 | DMG: 10 | MIT:56 | ACC:3 | AA | FL.AURA: 4 | THORNS:18 | BH:14 | HB: 18 | LD:3 | FTK (1/7) Morningstar | HP: 379/450 | EN: 12/43 | DMG: 9 | ACC: 4 | AA | EVA: 4 | REC: 2 | LD: 4 | HLY: 4 | FRZ | SUSHI

oof ouch owie my bones Recovery. +1 EN. +18 HP Swift Action. Forgotten King's Authority (-5 EN) Frozen removed. Main Action: ST-I -> Morningstar (-2 EN) 243009 | BD 4 + 4 - 4 | Miss. Acanthus | HP: 372/440 | EN: 27/43 | DMG: 10 | MIT:56 51 | ACC:3 | AA | FL.AURA: 4 | THORNS:18 | BH:14 | HB: 18 | LD:3 | BURN: 14 (0/2) | Shatter: -5 (2/3) | FTK (0/7) Morningstar | HP: 379/450 | EN: 17/43 | DMG: 9 | ACC: 4 | AA | EVA: 4 | REC: 2 | LD: 4 | HLY: 4 | FRZ | SUSHI

Frustration grew with each missed swing. The only ground she could gain was the inevitable damage of her flames and thorns. Morningstar himself was too fast and too smart to hit. Emotions rose and caught in her chest with each step forward and back. She hated them—hated each and every entwined feeling that she could not pick out, and analyze, and return to a neatly labeled container in her mind. Unconsciously, her mind sorted what it could. She felt sad. What she had done on Floor Nine was unforgivable. Morningstar had every right to hate her. She felt afraid. Her actions were h

Morningstar darted in, severing another strand of her patience with a decisive strike, while Acanthus’ sword sliced the air where he had just been. He’s fast. That’ll save his life someday. ...It already did. Nervous, her body fused to the floor, refusing to press the withdrawing figure. Instead, botan formed a feeble line between her and Morningstar. “Stop it.” The words fell from her mouth, less a command than a plea. “Stop it.” Morningstar appeared deaf. His face locked into a grimace she had only seen at the bandit camp itself. Was it too late to talk? It’s

Initiative: 242993 | LD 20 Acanthus had dreaded this moment since her brief lapse of judgment on floor nine. Hadn’t she earned a little more time before dealing with Morningstar? When she had seen the scheduled fight, her heart dropped. Three draft messages lay abandoned in her messages folder, begging Minako to reconsider the match, or even just threatening to forfeit before the fight started. But those drafts remained unsent, and now she was here. Acanthus’s mind clouded over, desperate to stay away from the feelings that had overtaken her in the midst of battle. Memories grew blac

No good. She scowled and fell back, taking a moment to catch her breath. <<I might as well sit down in front of you. You’re too weak to even take a swing at me.>> Hirru seemed like the last person to be goaded with such an obvious ploy, but she’d take any chance to move the game along. <<How have your other fights gone? I shudder to imagine a mirror match for you.>> Before she could conjure up another half-baked insult, Emrakul spoke to her. An inky black canvas washed away the fight, and the noise along with it. All that remained with the voice (the very no

THREAD SUMMARY Experience. [Word Count: 5499/10 = 549.9] * [True Tier: 7] * [Group Factor: 1] = 3849 + 1500 (quest) = 5349 * 1.1 (Slime Farm) = 5883 EXP Col. 400 (bonus) + 577 (Laurel Wreath) + 1500 (quest) = 2477 col

Softly, like handling a newborn child, Haru lifted her Dad from the floor. She recalled her de-escalation exercises from the hospital, but she never thought she’d be using them here. “Dad, I solved a cipher in one of the later journals.” Noboru stared wildly around the room. “Really? Really?? What did it say? No, wait, I want to solve it—” She cut in, “no, Dad, Mom said this was urgent. She said you have to start taking your meds again.” He shook his head. “She wouldn’t say that, she can’t talk to me unless I’m listening.” “She said… She said she needs a break.” Haru bit her lip unti

The creature had fallen silent, and appeared to be looking at her with pleading eyes.

Spoiler content: the following post contains spoilers for the quest <<To Shine a Light.>> The staff worked really hard to make a really neat quest with a reveal; personally, I think you’re doing yourself a disservice to not work through the puzzles and experience the reveal yourself. Because not many people have done this quest at the time of reading, I’m keeping the narrative below as spoiler-free as possible. Run the quest if you’re interested in all the juicy details.

The universe felt millions of kilometers away. The rain pounded on windows a million kilometers in the sky as her fingers worked the padlock of a secret passage that someone else had discovered a million years ago. The code slid in effortlessly as it had a million times before. The hatch opened with a shriek that sounded from a million star systems to the left. The bones of Acanthus moved down into the hole, and her soul followed after. —-- The warped stairway spiraled down in a manner that destroyed her sense of direction. It followed the spiral of the lighthouse at first, but then

Haru was shocked to find that much of the study was the exact same as she had remembered from her brief glimpse seven years ago. Books lay strewn on the floor, the office chair still tilted on its side in the middle of the study. But the differences made her gasp. Her mom’s journals and letters had been nailed, tacked, and stapled across the walls in a garish display, hung like the body parts of Christ in a gruesome display of reverence. Large sections of butcher paper had been strung in-between the notes, scrawled with messages such as “eight nonograms found in pages 78–89” and “possible Vige

She couldn’t believe her ears. This thing was… scolding her? It had the audacity to hound her every step through Aincrad. It whispered awful things in her ears. It nearly drove her to the precipice of killing not only herself, but other players. And now it was the one deciding what memories she could remember? Fury built up in her chest. “You—you don’t have the right. These are my memories! What gives you the right? Or, or the power?!” She drew botan, as if it would do anything. The voice chortled at the display. RIGHT AND POWER, SHE THINKS ARE TWO THINGS. RIGHT IS POWER. AND THE POWER IS

The study of Graycott Point was a dream for book-lovers— —No, I was remembering something. I was remembering something, what was it— Rows upon rows of leather-bound novels, in a bevy of genres that appealed to any— —stop it, take me back to the memory, I need to see my Dad! SHE DOES NOT WANT TO SEE HIM. OR ELSE SHE WOULD BE IN HIS STUDY, AND NOT THIS ONE. She choked as the gravelly voice made her head spin. THE GIRL MUST RELAX. WE ARE HERE TO FREE HER FROM THE PAIN OF REMEMBERING. SHE DOES NOT NEED TO KNOW. “I want to know.” Her voice was fraught with emotion

Haru tried the door to the study again. Dad was howling in anger. “Dad? Dad! What’s going on in there?” The howling stopped. “Nothing, Haru. I—Don’t concern yourself.” Sounds of tidying up wafted through the door. She did not press her ear to the door as she used to. She wasn’t a child anymore. Haru folded her arms. “I am concerned. This is the third time I’ve heard you from my room since I came home for the weekend. Koji probably hasn’t said anything because he lives with his headset on. Are you going to let me in or am I going to call the police for a wellness check?” “That is

Acanthus blinked back to the present. She had filled in the nonogram without thinking. The nonogram. —tacked on the walls—scrawled in red ink, swathes of charcoal desecrating the paper— Her heartbeat rose in her chest. She was forgetting something. No, she wasn’t letting herself remember. What was she not letting herself remember? The nonogram was the key. But why? It was a puzzle for a puzzle. Dad would be ecstatic.—he tore through the papers with an ecstatic gleam in his eyes— Acanthus forced her eyes down to the paper. The shape meant nothing to her. Something about the type

“It would be a good exercise, father.” “I don’t need exercise,” he huffed. “I need a challenge. Dropdown word puzzles are just playing hangman with an invisible fiend.” It was a dramatic choice of words for him. Since mom had passed, his interest in puzzles had waned. In the past, Haru could bait him into talking with her by greeting him with a new riddle or puzzle. But lately, he had been growing disinterested in anything but the study. He would vanish immediately after dinner, leaving the rest of the family to clean up after him. The door would lock, and the children would be left

Acanthus traced her fingers along the shelves of the study, reading the titles of a dozen Scarlet Burbage novels. Whoever had lived here loved this author. Nobody ever lived here. Reality seeped into her thoughts. Just a programmer who wrote a character who loved Scarlet Burbage. But nobody real. A desk in the middle of the room— —No, dad’s desk was closer to the left wall as you entered— “Stop that!” she cried out. But her only response was the rain. Embarrassed at her sudden outburst, Acanthus crept over to the desk, leafing through a biography of Julius Caesar. She found a page bo

The study was next. But she couldn’t bring herself to enter. I’ll save it for later. There’s probably clues elsewhere that I need to solve first. The living room proved cozier than the rest of the rooms combined. Another blazing fire beckoned her to the armchair, where she sat down with a heavy *plop*. With the rain outside, she could almost drift off to sleep. This isn’t a safe zone, she reminded herself. And I have no one here to make sure something doesn’t attack me in my sleep. Reluctantly, she stood back up and worked her way through the contents of the room. More fish on the wa

Haru gently tested the door. It was locked. A pause confirmed that her dad heard her rattle the handle. “...I’m busy right now. I’m still working through—I’m still working on some of… Some notes.” What he meant to say was “going through mom’s journals.” Even with the door shut, she could hear him flipping pages, muttering to himself, all the way through the night. A puzzle that baffled even the great Noboru Masuda. Maybe I can help him. Maybe if I ask, he’ll let me in. We can try and solve it together. “Yes, father. Should I have Ryoji bring you some supper later?” “I’m not hungry. D

“Scrambled messages are either a treat or a bore to solve,” her dad sighed. She had come to the door to ask about her classic literature homework, but she listened patiently. “A healthy mind will embed a puzzle within the key to make it interesting to solve. A troubled mind is content for the easy way out.” “And what way is that?” She set her book down as she waited outside the study. Maybe he would let her in this time. Six years later and he still kept the door shut. It had only been two years since he returned inside, and even then, he kept odd hours, so she never caught him coming or

Acanthus jotted down the answer in her notes. The journaling application in her menu would have sufficed, but something about handwriting forced her mind to concentrate. It also felt more comfortable than typing on a strange floating screen. “I didn’t even need mom this time,” she whispered to herself. Glancing around the kitchen one more time, she left to explore the bedroom. The bedroom was part order and part chaos. The bed was perfectly made, the trunk closed and latched, but not locked. The nautical theme complimented the lighthouse with worn, cozy wall decor. The chaos began at the